Medieval Gospel Commentary, lost for 1500 years – now translated and online

„The extraordinary find, a work written by a bishop in North Italy, Fortunatianus of Aquileia, dates back to the middle of the fourth century. The biblical text of the manuscript is of particular significance, as it predates the standard Latin version known as the Vulgate and provides new evidence about the earliest form of the Gospels in Latin, shedding new light on the early Church.

Despite references to it in other ancient works, no copy was known to survive until a researcher from the University of Salzburg identified the commentary in an anonymous manuscript copied around the year 800 and held in Cologne Cathedral Library.“

„In October 2012, Lukas Dorfbauer encountered the anonymous gospel commentary which constitutes the majority of Codex 17 in Cologne Cathedral Library. Copied in the Rhineland in the first third of the ninth century, this parchment codex of 103 pages boasts a fine illuminated title page, followed by two pages written in uncial script before the Caroline minuscule script which is used by the five principal copyists in the rest of the volume. The manuscript had been fully digitised and put online in the Codices Electronici Ecclesiae Coloniensis collection in 2002, and was also included in the catalogue of Cologne Cathedral manuscripts made in 1995″ (p. XII).